The Party
by soultaker78
Summary: Heather throws a party and invites almost every Total Drama contestant. During the party, Heather does some questionable things with the best intentions in mind while hook-ups take place that no one saw coming. Pairings: DJxH, GxC, SxEZ, CxJ and NxK.
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: This story is a sequel to another story I wrote called 'I don't want to be the bad guy anymore'. I will try to not have too many connections to that story. All you need to know is that this story takes place several months after TDWT, Heather has repented her bitchy ways, formed an unlikely friendship with Eva and has gotten DJ into playing Jiminy Cricket to her Pinocchio.

…..

Heather was at her house with DJ getting ready for the upcoming party. The occasion was that it was DJ's birthday. All of the former Total Drama Contestants (with one exception) would be coming to the event because Heather had tapped into her trust fund to pay for airfare.

Preparations were still under way when one of the guests arrived. It was Cody: Heather had asked him to come earlier than the other's so he could give the party's sound system a quick once over.

"Hi Heather," Cody greeted.

"HI Cody," Heather said. "I'll show you the speakers, but there's a few things I want to tell you first. I want you to hang on to this during the party," Heather reached into a nearby box and handed Cody a stun gun. Cody took it while having a bewildered expression on his face.

"Why would I need this?" he asked with a tint of fear.

"I would like you to act as security for the party," Heather explained. "Some of the people could qualify as potentially dangerous. And of course there's the matter of our other two guests of honor just getting out of the loony bin."

This party wasn't just for DJ's birthday: It was also serving as a celebration for Ezekiel and Sierra completing their stays at the same mental institution. After TDWT, Sierra looked back at what happened in Drumheller and realized that her feelings for Cody affected her higher-level thinking. She knew that Alejandro was not to be trusted but upon seeing the photo-shopped picture of Heather and Cody cozying up to each other, she took it at face value even though (as Cody later pointed out) there was no point in time the picture could have taken place with how much she was hovering around Cody.

These realizations (along with unkind suggestions viewers of the shown had e-mailed her) got her into thinking that she might need extensive psychiatric help, so she voluntarily checked herself into a mental hospital.

Ezekiel was also sent to the same mental hospital, though much less voluntarily. His parents checked him in, hoping the institution could undo the effects of his recent feralization.

It took a while, but Sierra did get better. It took longer for progress to be made with Ezekiel. Sierra kept visiting him through his recovery and they became very close as he got better.

"I understand their together now," Heather said. "Are you cool with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Cody replied.

"Let's be completely frank here," Heather began. "The only reason you didn't return Sierra's affections was because of her being a little bit completely insane. Now that she's gotten better in that regard, you might be having second thoughts. Unfortunately, she's gotten so much better that she's not interested in you anymore. How does that make you feel?"

"I'm okay with that," Cody answered. "I think of Sierra as a good friend, but I don't think I could be with her since she made a bad first impression in that regard."

"Besides, you're probably still thinking of a certain goth girl," Heather countered. "I'm sure you've heard the news."

Heather was referring to the fact that Gwen and Duncan had broken up about two weeks ago. This was caused by Duncan cheating on Gwen to the surprise of no one but her.

"I'm not going to make any moves on Gwen tonight," Cody said.

"You finally got over her?" Heather asked.

"No. I just don't want to piss off Gwen by trying to take advantage of her personal tragedy so soon after it happened. There's also a chance she'd be pissed at me for thinking I've got a shot with her now just cause Trent and Duncan are out of the picture."

"I can't believe you still have feelings for her. For crap's sake, she thought making out with a criminal jackass and dealing with Courtney's incredibly volatile temper was a more appealing course of action than giving you a shot."

"Well, um…"

"And that's not even going into her pasty skin, terrible fashion sense, ugly hair and….."

"ENOUGH!" Cody yelled. "I am not going to stand here while you insult Gwen. So yeah, she's not perfect but you're hardly one to talk. And I know Gwen doesn't return my feelings, but I still think that she's a uniquely stylish and amazing person. I know I should probably get over her for my good but that's way harder than it sounds because she's just so alluring. And I'm not mad at her about the Duncan thing: we all make mistakes. Now, where are those speakers?"

Heather pointed Cody towards the speakers and we went towards them. When he was gone, Heather reached into her pocket, pulled out a recording devise and turned it off. _Phase one complete, _Heather thought.

…..

It was later when the first party guests began to arrive. Courtney entered Heather's home and walked up to her. They exchanged greetings and then Courtney decided to bring up an awkward subject.

"When is Alejandro coming?" she asked.

"He's not coming," Heather answered with as much calm as she could muster.

"You didn't invite him," Courtney said in a whiny tone. She had a bit of thing for Alejandro and was hoping to get closer to him.

"It would have been very rude for me to have invited him."

"How's that?"

"Al would have just thought I was goading him into breaking the restraining order."

"What restraining order?"

"The one I took out saying he can't be within fifty feet of me or DJ."

"Was that really necessary?"

"Yes," Heather said in a tone that made it very clear that she was done talking about this subject. Courtney took the hint and walked away. Heather continued to look at her and could tell she was slightly saddened by the new information. Heather walked up to DJ.

"Hey," She said to get his attention. She then pointed towards Courtney. "I want you to go talk to Courtney and try to cheer her up."

"I'm not comfortable with that," DJ said. "I don't know Courtney that well so I'm not sure what to say to her. Besides, she scares me. Like, a lot."

"I know DJ," Heather replied, understanding why he'd feel that way (and it had nothing to do with his usual lack of backbone). "But she really needs your gift of saying kind words to people who need them the most."

"I don't know about this," he said with blatant nervousness as he looked at Courtney and Heather walked behind him.

"Then it's a good thing I do," Heather said as she raised her right leg, put her foot on DJ's but and pushed him in Courtney's direction. He stumbled his way over to the mocha skinned C.I.T. and stopped before ramming into her, getting her attention in the process.

"Hi," DJ said. He figured that since he was already in this mess, he might as well try to cheer Courtney up.

"That sums up DJ so well," Noah said, having witnessed Heather and DJ's exchange. "In desperate need of the occasional swift kick in the ass."

"Then it's a good thing he has me," Heather said with a proud smile. "How are you doing Noah?"

"I'm good," he answered. "So I've heard that you and DJ are together now. If you don't mind me asking, how did that happen?"

"It was about three weeks ago," Heather began.

….

(Begin flashback)

_DJ had asked to see Heather in private at his house. "Hello Heather," he greeted. "I just want to say that you have made great progress in becoming a nicer person since we started this little experiment."_

"_All thanks to your guidance," Heather said. _

"_My guidance wouldn't have done anything without you deciding to change and your resolve to follow it through," DJ countered. "You're also smart, beautiful and strong. I…"_

_DJ stuttered off as he worked up the courage to say what he wanted. Heather could already tell what he wanted to say from the look of longing in his eyes._

"_DJ," she began, "I have thought about us becoming more than friends too. But I don't think…..," Heather stammered off as well. She wanted to tell DJ why she thought them getting together was a bad idea but was caught off guard from DJ's admission. She had some deeper feelings of her own for him and was wondering why she didn't want to go through with it._

_DJ was looking into Heather's eyes and could see a look of hesitance mixed with longing. While he had been working on making Heather nicer, she had also tried to teach DJ to be more confident and assertive. DJ decided that now was the perfect time to use what little Heather had taught him._

_He pulled Heather towards him and kissed her. Heather's eyes widened in shock for a bit, then relaxed as she put her arms around his muscular frame and began making out with him. DJ followed her lead and they stayed like that for quite some time._

_(End flashback)_


	2. Chapter 2

"That's very touching," Noah said in regards to Heather's story. "But I seem to recall you saying earlier that you had no intention of being with DJ like that. What changed your mind?"

"DJ threw me a pretty serious curve ball," Heather began. "How was I supposed to know that he'd develop feelings of his own for me, let alone that he'd have the guts to act on them?"

"I know I didn't see that coming," Noah replied.

Noah and Heather began making small talk. Noah and Heather had become kind of close after he and Katie had invited her over to Katie's house for a little chat. Those two had started hanging around each other when Katie's family had moved. Katie was in a bad place after being separated from Sadie and thought it would be a good idea to get closer to the one person she knew in her new town.

…

(Begin flashback)

_Heather had driven two hours to get to Katie's new house. The only reason she was making this excursion was because Katie and Noah said they had something important to tell her and that it should be said in person. She was now in the living room with Katie and Noah, waiting to hear what this something important was._

"_Hello Heather," Noah said. "First off, thanks for coming out here to see us. As for the reason for this get-together, I'll get to that right now. Katie and I both saw your recent blog post where you talked about trying to be a better person. I just want you to know that I believe you."_

"_You do," Heather said in a tone that showed she was touched. She knew that few people would give her the benefit of the doubt about turning over a new leaf due to the preconceptions they had of her being pure evil (which she talked about in that same blog post)._

"_I do," Noah answered. "I don't know if you noticed it, but I put effort into participating in the challenges and being a team player this past season. That didn't happen by accident: I knew what caused my elimination in season one and worked on those areas. So I know that despite the low opinion of others, it is possible to recognize flaws about yourself and make progress with fixing them."_

"_As for me," Katie said, "I didn't think of you as pure evil, but then you used the 'P' word in your blog post. I've had my own issues with preconceptions so I know how much it sucks to be on the receiving end of them. This got me into thinking that I should change my opinion of you. Or at least be less rigid with the one I already had."_

"_Thank you, both of you," Heather said in gratitude. "If you don't mind my asking Katie, what preconception issues have you had?"_

"_Well," Katie began, "for one thing I've had to deal with people spreading rumors about Sadie and I being more than friends since grade six."_

"_I am sorry about that," Heather apologized for her the own things she said in that regard. _

"_It's cool," Katie said casually. "You're hardly the only whose done that. And another preconception issue I've dealt with has to do with my parents. Just look."_

_Katie took out a picture from her pocket and handed it to Heather. Heather looked at it and saw Katie with two people she deduced were her parents: a balding, middle-aged white male and a black woman of the same age with an afro roughly the size of her head._

"_Why is your mom sporting an afro?" Heather asked. "Does she have short-term amnesia and think it's 1973?"_

"_She says that it's a cultural thing," Katie explained. "Anyway, one of my pet peeves is people finding out about me being mixed race and acting super surprised about it. Like I can't be black, or even part black, because I'm not a walking stereotype like Leshawna."_

_Katie's eyes widened in shock as she realized that she said that last part out loud. "Oh god, please don't tell her I said that," she pleaded._

"_Relax Katie," Heather said in a calm tone. "I have no intention of siccing Leshawna on you. I am well aware of her capacity for violence, especially when it's paired with a heaping helping of misplaced self-righteousness. I have no reason to wish that on you," Heather finished and rubbed the part of her mouth where her missing tooth used to be._

"_You're still sore about what happened in Germany, aren't you?" Katie asked._

"_Ya think," Noah said dryly. _

"_It's funny you mention all that stuff about your ethnicity," Heather said. "One of my own pet peeves is people assuming I'm Japanese when I'm actually Chinese. To be technical, I'm half Chinese half Canadian. Interestingly, my Asian-ness comes from my mom too, like your blackness."_

"_And she gives you crap about not wanting to be more in tune with your heritage," Katie said._

"_Are you reading my mind? What am I thinking now?" Heather asked as she began chanting the jingle from the Meow Mix commercials in her head. She was very pleasantly surprised to find out she had so much in common with Katie and was glad she made the trip to see her and Noah._

"_Changing the subject now," Noah said, feeling a little annoyed with how the girls were ignoring him. "I understand you bought DJ and his mom a house so he could live near you."_

"_So he can be a good influence on me," Heather explained. "What are you getting at?"_

"_What we're curios about," Katie said, "is if you and DJ are….. together."_

"_No and more importantly, we will never be," Heather answered. "I have thought about that and it would definitely be possible to DJ to be my moral compass in a romantic context. But if I were to ask him out, he might only say yes out of gratitude for the whole 'I bought him a house thing'. That could complicate the matter."_

(End flashback)

…..

"So tell me Noah," Heather said, "what's going on with you and Katie?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Noah answered.

"Yes you do," Heather replied dryly.

"I do, but that's never going to happen," Noah said and then looked over at Katie. She was talking with Sadie, no doubt catching up on all that had happened since they were separated and would be doing that all night.

_That's what I said about being with DJ, _Heather thought. _And it wasn't because I didn't want it but because of other circumstances. _Heather came to the conclusion that Noah did want to be with Katie but didn't act on these feelings because of things beyond his control. Heather wasn't sure what she would do with this knowledge so she filed it away for future reference.

DJ and Courtney had been talking for a while. DJ was able to convince her to not care about Alejandro any more. Justin had been watching them talk and walked up to them.

"Hey DJ," Justin greeted. "I see Heather and Noah are kind of close. Aren't you worried about that?"

"Of course not," DJ answered.

"That's funny, because I just saw him kiss her," Justin said.

"No you didn't," DJ replied dryly. He knew what Justin was up to. "If you want me to go so you can talk to Courtney alone, just say so."

"I want you to go so I can talk to Courtney alone," Justin said.

"Was that really so hard?" DJ asked in a slightly irritated tone and walked away. He wasn't happy that Justin had just tried to sow suspicion between him and Heather when there were alternatives.

"Hey," Justin said to Courtney.

"Hey," Courtney returned the greeting.

"You must be glad that things fizzled between Duncan and Gwen."

"Not really: I got over that a while ago. I even once warned Gwen that he would likely cheat on her, like he did to me. So to answer your question, I'm not taking joy from Gwen's misfortune."

Justin had a bewildered expression on his face upon hearing this.

"Yes, I know this is really different from how I acted on the show," Courtney said.

"You deserved so much better than to be treated like you were by Duncan," Justin said.

"I know," Courtney said matter-of-factly. Then she realized what Justin was really trying to say. "I mean, that's very kind of you to say."

Courtney thought that Justin was being uncharacteristically kind. This, combined with how he tried to get DJ to go away brought her to one conclusion. "Is there anything else you'd like to say, Justin?" she asked.

"You are a very smart, beautiful and spirited girl," Justin said. "If you're ready to open your heart after that bastard Duncan stomped all over it, I would like to be with you." When Justin finished, he held Courtney's hand.

Courtney was incredibly touched by Justin's words. She returned his grip and they looked dreamily into each other's eyes.

….

Not much later, Sierra and Ezekiel had made it to the party. Sierra's hair was very short because it hadn't grown back much from when she was caught in the plain explosion in Drumheller. She had started dying it the same color she used to use on her old braid.

"Welcome," Heather said with a big smile as she greeted them. Ezekiel had not heard anything about Heather's recent change and thought Heather was expressing joy at the prospect of killing him for costing her the million dollars at the end of TDWT, so he cowered behind Sierra.

"I'm not mad at you for what happened with the million dollars," Heather said. "I could have easily had a mental breakdown similar to what happened to you what with the pressure to win, vast hatred of the other contestants and a lack of progress towards one-upping a certain evil Spaniard. The only reason I was able to hang on to my sanity while dealing with that is because I'm awesome."

"What I'm trying to get at," Heather continued, "is that rather than being angry, I have decided to pity you for succumbing to a fate that could have befallen me. It's not your fault that you didn't have my gift for handling pressure."

"Uh, thank you," Ezekiel half-asked-half-said, deeply confused from both Heather not wanting him dead and her half-assed way of forgiving him.

"You're welcome," Heather said with a wide smile. She then showed the two of them around the party.

When Heather was done with them, Cody walked up to the pair. "Hi Sierra," he greeted.

"Hi Cody," Sierra returned his greeting then looked at Ezekiel. "Could you give us a minute alone, Zeke?"

"Sure," he said and then walked off.

"I'm sorry for all the ways I ignored your privacy, Cody," Sierra said.

"Really," Cody said in astonishment, then realized how inappropriate his response was. "Ugh, I mean…."

"It's all right," Sierra said. "I know I really bothered you and you didn't say anything because of how nice you are. But I'm better now and no longer fixated on you."

"So much better that you've gotten together with Ezekiel," Cody said. "How exactly did that happen by the way?"

"I spent time with him during our treatment," Heather said. "We got really close as I became balanced and he became lucid. And the best part, at least for him anyway, is that I like him in a way that respects his personal space."

Cody and Sierra talked for a while and then went their separate ways. Some time later, the last of the guests arrived. This included Duncan and Gwen, but it was the former Cody was interested in. He touched the stun gun Heather had given him earlier and considered doing something incredibly stupid.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hi Duncan," Cody said as he walked up to him. "Look what Heather gave me earlier. Oopsmyfingerslipped," Cody blurted out that last part as he pulled the trigger. Two cables shot out at Duncan, electrocuted him and he fell limp to the floor.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at what Cody had just done. The music also stopped but no one noticed that at the moment. Cody looked around and saw Gwen. She looked like she was having trouble processing what was before her. They locked eyes for a while.

"Duncan had that coming," Cody said to her. "First, he gets together with you by cheating on Courtney: an action that had most of the finger pointing involved being in your direction. And did he even give a shit about how he got you into hot water like that? Not even a little a bit from what I could tell. And after all that, he's too much of an idiot to appreciate what he has and cheats on you. You deserve better and he deserved….. that," Cody said and motioned his hand towards Duncan's unconscious form.

When Cody was done, a bouquet of fake roses was thrown and landed at his feet. He looked to see where the roses came from and saw Heather standing by the sound system. He figured that Heather was the one who turned down the music.

"Bravo, bravo," Heather said as she clapped and smiled.

"You," Cody said as he pointed his finger at Heather. "You gave me the stun gun, you knew Duncan would be coming to the party. You knew this was going to happen."

"That's right," Heather said exuberantly. "Like you, I have my own issues with Duncan. Giving you the ability and opportunity to act out your various indignations seemed like it would be a hell of a lot of fun. And it was," Heather finished, smiling from ear to ear.

"I am very disappointed in you, Heather," DJ said as he walked closer to her. "Duncan did nothing to you to warrant this."

"Directly, no. Indirectly, less so," Heather explained and then took in a deep breath. "I don't know if any of you have noticed this, but Duncan has like this, superpower to be a total jackass and not take nearly as much heat for his actions as he should."

"Oh, I've noticed," Courtney said, practically dripping venom. She knew exactly what Heather was talking about: a shockingly small portion of the internet did not share her opinion about Duncan being a treacherous piece of shit.

"Me too," Harold said. "I got a lot of flak for voting off Courtney back in season 1. Apparently, Duncan tormenting the crap out of me for his sadistic amusement is A-OK but the instant I try to get back at him, suddenly I'm the bad guy."

"Exactly," Heather said. "I was hardly the only person on the show who did some bad things yet I seem to be the only person who gets punished for it. And it's not just Duncan: Courtney did some very uncool things during season 2 and all she has to do is say sorry for it all to be swept under the rug. And during season 3, nobody suspected of Alejandro of foul play because they were too busy hating my guts. Hell, look at the final challenge of that season: Alejandro was responsible for like half the eliminations and were his victims interested in helping me make sure he didn't win? Of course they didn't, because as far as everyone was concerned I was pure evil, everyone else was automatically pure good on account of not being me and nothing would ever change that!" Heather shouted at the crowd.

Heather took a few deep breaths to regain her calm. "Anyway," she continued, "I am pissed as hell about people doing evil shit and getting free passes for it instead of me, or sometimes even because of me. Since Duncan is the biggest offender in that area, I decided to make him pay."

"I also had other reasons to be pissed at him," Heather continued. "As a girl, I was disgusted with how casually he stomped over Courtney and Gwen's hearts when the only thing they did wrong was have feelings for him. Also, the way he struts around like he thinks he's god's gift to woman reminded me of Alejandro, which pushed a few buttons of it's own. So in response to any concerns you have DJ, I'll say this: lighten up, it's a party. There's nothing wrong with a little harmless fun at the expense of a complete asshole."

"Harmless," DJ said in shock at Heather's wording. "Duncan's been electrocuted into unconsciousness and I think he just peed himself."

"Awesome!" Harold cried with his arms raised out. He and Courtney went over to Duncan, pulled out their cell phones and took pictures of his soiled crotch.

"This is so going on the internet," Courtney said with malicious glee.

"I can help you achieve maximum distribution," Harold said. "If you're interested, that is."

"I am," Courtney answered and the two walked away while discussing the matter.

DJ was awestruck as he looked at them. They went from Courtney beating him up with a lamppost back in season 1 to now bonding over their mutual disdain for Duncan. Considering the joy and camaraderie they were now feeling because of Heather's actions, he decided to reevaluate his disappointment of Heather.

DJ knew that Heather was right when she talked about Duncan's superpower. He and Duncan were kind of close in season 1 but DJ found himself not caring for Duncan during season 2 when he seemed to take up treating everyone like crap as his hobby. He also noticed that people gave Duncan an incredible amount leeway with his new 'hobby'. He once briefly thought about discussing the issue with Duncan and maybe tell people that they should be angrier with him but was too timid to do so.

He also knew that Heather's main reason for being pissed at Duncan, his superpower, was a very touchy subject with her. DJ remembered a conversation he had with Heather once. She talked about how when it came to hating her, people seemed to stack the deck against her and as a result stacking it in favor of people like, as she put it, "that delinquent asshole and the evil Spaniard." She yelled all this to DJ then cried for a while. DJ hugged her and tried to cheer her up.

_She obviously didn't get completely over that, _DJ thought. Taking all these things into consideration, DJ knew that what Heather did was wrong but couldn't think of a specific reason why.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," Heather said, "I've got something I want to show you all."

Heather quickly fiddled with the sound system and played something special. Cody's eyes widened in shock as he recognized what was playing as the declaration of his feelings for Gwen that he gave to Heather earlier. As an edited version of their conversation played, Cody completely froze.

When that was done playing, Gwen was very touched by what she had learned: Cody had come to this party with no intention of making moves on her and was still interested in her despite knowing that it wasn't best for him.

Gwen thought back to a conversation she had earlier with Leshawna. She had told Gwen about how happy she was with Harold since they'd started dating. She had been trying to convince Gwen that she should reconsider giving Cody a shot, especially in light of how things with Trent and Duncan turned out. As Gwen remembered that, took into account what she had learned from Heather's recording and seeing Cody punish Duncan for his lack of fidelity, Gwen decided that it was time to give Cody that shot.

Gwen walked up to Cody, looked into his eyes and kissed him. The party guests who saw this cheered, happy that Cody got this opportunity.

While Cody and Gwen were the center of attention, Heather slipped away and was planning to lay low for a bit. While she was slinking away, Noah caught up to her.

"That was impressive, Heather," Noah said. "I'm not sure why you helped Cody get the girl he's been pining after for so long and I don't really care. What I'm interested in is what would it take for you to….,"

"Hi Heather," Katie interrupted Noah as she walked up to the two of them. "Hey Noah," Katie said awkwardly as she noticed his presence.

"Hey Katie," Noah responded with equal awkwardness. The two of them just looked at each other for a while in stunned silence.

"Let me guess," Heather spoke up. "After witnessing my skills at matchmaking with Cody and Gwen, you two are wondering if I can do the same for you. Specifically, you want me to get you together with each other."

"No," Noah lied. He had thought about being more than friends with Katie for a while now. Heather was absolutely right about what he wanted, but the last thing he wanted to do was say that in front of Katie.

"Yes," Katie said. They looked at each other for a while wondering what they would say. "Noah…..," Katie began but was interrupted by Heather touching the back of her and Noah's heads and gently pushing them together. Her and Noah's lips and they began kissing.

_Why am I so amazing? _Heather asked herself after seeing her handiwork and she walked away.


	4. Chapter 4

While Heather's recording was playing, Duncan's unconscious body was dragged away. Harold, Courtney and Justin took him outside tied him to a tree with duct tape.

"Huh," Duncan said as he began coming to. He saw Harold, Courtney and Justin standing in front of him. He tried to move but found that his torso was bound. "What the f#^k is going on here?" he asked angrily.

"Heather had her chance to f#&k with you and we're taking ours," Courtney answered. Justin then took the duct taped he had used to bind Duncan and covered his mouth with it so they wouldn't have to deal with further protests from the punk.

"For the record, I have nothing personal against you," Justin said to Duncan by whispering to him. "But I am trying to get lucky with Courtney and helping her and Harold with this will help me in that area. Seeing as how you tossed her and Gwen aside as callously as you did to get more notches on your bedpost, I'm sure you understand."

Duncan glared at Justin while grumbling angrily over the duct tape. With that out of the way, Duncan's captors took their positions. Harold was about fifteen feet across from Duncan while Justin was about seven feet away and Courtney was off to the side with a video camera.

"Where did you even get this idea, Harold?" Courtney asked.

"Japanese television," Harold answered. "April 3rd, 1971: manga creator Shotaro Ishinomori created a show that would forever change the tokusatsu genre….,"

"Spare us the nerdy history lesson, Harold," Justin said. "Let's skip to the part where Duncan's hurting."

"Very well," Harold said, completely understanding the vain male's enthusiasm.

He ran towards Justin who had his hands cupped and lowered while Courtney began filming. Harold stepped into Justin's hands and Justin raised them, sending the lanky nerd flying towards Duncan. Harold stuck his right foot out in a kicking motion and it made contact with Duncan's stomach. Duncan's eyes widened in pain and Harold fell to the ground in front of him.

"Yes!" Harold cried out as he raised his arms. Justin then walked up to Courtney.

"Did you get all that?" he asked the mocha skinned C.I.T..

"Oh yeah," Courtney replied with a malicious grin. _This is so going up with the picture of him pissing himself, _she thought.

"Justin," Courtney said as she lowered the camera and faced him. "Thanks for helping with this. It meant a lot of to me, even if you only did to further endear yourself to me."

"Uh, no I didn't," Justin incompetently denied.

"Relax, it worked," Courtney reassured him. She then grabbed his hand, pulled him towards her and kissed him. She had decided to give Justin a chance because of the nice things he said earlier along with this. His own attractiveness certainly didn't hurt things either.

The two of them began making out as Harold was laughing from jubilation and Duncan was groaning in pain.

…

Noah and Katie had been making out for several minutes while stopping for the occasional oxygen break. They decided to stop and broke apart.

"Katie," Noah began, "I've been wanting to this with you for a while now. You're so sweet and beautiful and hanging out with you has helped me come out of my shell. I would have told you this earlier but I was afraid you wouldn't feel the same way and I'd lose you as a friend."

"I was in such in a bad place after being separated from Sadie," Katie said. "Getting to know you helped with that. When I found out that you weren't as anti-social as you were when I first met you in season 1, I thought about being more than friends with you but I didn't think you'd be interested in me since I'm not nearly as brainy as you. I've never been happier to be proven wrong."

"Me too," Noah said. They looked into each other's eyes longingly for a while and then started making out again.

…

Heather had retreated to her room and opened a wine cooler she had grabbed earlier. "A toast," she said as she held her drink out. "To me: I've still got it."

She drank her wine cooler and enjoyed it immensely. Her enjoyment was interrupted by a knock on her door. "Open up Heather," Gwen said. "There are a few things I want to talk to you about. If you don't open by the count of five, I'm knocking the door down. One. Two."

Gwen stopped her counting when Heather opened the door. Upon doing so, she saw that Cody was there as well. The two of them entered Heather's room and closed the door behind them.

"What do you want to know, Gwen?" Heather asked.

"I know what you've been up to," Gwen said. "I know you aggravated Cody into saying his feelings for me in front of you while you were recording him. I know you gave him a stun gun in the hopes he'd turn it on Duncan. I know you did all this to help him get with me. The only thing I don't know is why?"

"It's quite simple Gwen," Heather began. "I've felt really bad about arranging Cody's defeat in the final challenge of last season. This was all my way of making it up to him."

Gwen paused for a moment as she processed Heather's response. There was once a time where she would have assumed that Heather was lying because she was simply incapable of telling the truth when it didn't suit her. But that time had passed and she was going to give Heather the benefit of the doubt.

"That was super nice of you," Gwen said.

"There's one thing I still don't understand though," Cody said. "Since your goal was to help me get together with Gwen, it seems you made things harder for yourself than you had to by keeping it a secret from me. What was with all the subterfuge?"

"It amused me," Heather said with a mischievous smile.

Considering the results of her actions, Gwen was having trouble being angry with Heather for arranging things the way she did. Besides, general mischief was a step down from the Machiavellian planning she used to do. Cody thanked Heather for what she'd done then he and Gwen said goodbye and left Heather's room.

"Please don't be mad at Heather," Cody said as she and Gwen walked away. "I know there are tons of ways she could have gone about this much better than she did, but her heart was in the right place."

"I'm not mad at Heather," Gwen said. "She thought she was doing the right thing. Which means she put some thought into what the right thing was, which is a huge step compared to when I first met her."

"Glad to hear it," Cody said. "One other thing: if you were expecting me to apologize to Duncan for tasing him, you're going to be disappointed."

"I wasn't expecting that, so don't worry," Gwen said. The two of them chuckled for a bit at how little they cared for Duncan.

Gwen held Cody's hand and he returned her grip. _This is everything I thought it would be and more, _Cody thought.

….

Author's notes: what Harold did to Duncan is called a Rider Kick. It's the finishing move of superheroes from the Kamen Rider franchise in Japan.


	5. Chapter 5

Once her little chat with Cody and Gwen was done, Heather waited in her room for a visitor she was expecting. She finished her wine cooler from earlier and a few minutes later, the person she was waiting for showed up.

"Hello Leshawna," Heather said, greeting the plus sized girl as she entered the room.

"Hey Heather," Leshawna returned the greeting as she closed the door behind her and walked up to Heather. "I can't believe our plan worked as perfectly as it did."

"I know, right," Heather said. "Even I'm impressed with how well Operation: Can't Possibly Fail lived up to it's name." The two of them chuckled at Heather's summary.

_We've come a long way since the Germany incident, _Heather thought as she began reflecting on how this came to be.

…

(Begin flashback)

_Harold had gotten Heather and Leshawna to agree to sit down and talk out their problems. Due to distance issues, he set up a video chat over the internet. They greeted each other with varying degrees of warmth and an awkward silence fell over the group._

"_I'll start off," Harold said. "I know that despite what many people have said about you before, that you are not pure evil Heather. That's why I gave you that ticket to see 'Megamind': I knew you had it in you to change but you just needed a little push."_

"_That was you?" Heather asked in surprise. _

"_Yes," Harold answered calmly._

"_Wait, that actually happened?" Leshawna asked. Harold had told her about giving Heather that movie ticket but she just thought that he was making it up to prove a point to her about Heather not being an irredeemable monster and to make himself look good. _

"_This is what happened," Heather began. "After the final challenge of season 3, I found a movie ticket slipped under the crack of my hotel room door. I had no idea who gave it to me but I went to see the movie because I had nothing better to do that night." _

_Heather then went into detail about how the movie got across it's message about how while circumstances can contribute to the kind of person you can be, it ultimately comes down to personal choice. _

"_Anyway," Heather continued, "I then thought about how being a bitch had gotten me nothing recently but vast hatred and choose to turn over a new leaf."_

_Leshawna took this all in. She could tell that Heather wasn't making this up from the expression she had when Harold admitted to giving her the ticket and the detail she used to the describe 'Megamind' (which Leshawna had seen as well)._

_Leshawna then thought about what happened the next day. Heather had somehow gotten on Eva's good side and asked Leshawna to apologize for what happened in Germany. She refused. Heather then asked again and said that if she refused a second time then Eva would rip out one of her teeth with a pair of pliers. Leshawna gave an insincere apology, not exactly dying of excitement to test her luck in a physical confrontation with Eva. Heather accepted the false apology and got Eva to stand down._

_After that altercation, Leshawna was deeply confused about why Heather's decision to not escalate the issue. She knew that Heather knew that she didn't really mean it when she said she was sorry about the Germany incident. Afterwards, she heard about how Heather had taken Lindsey and Beth on shopping trips to make it up to them for using them as her lackeys in season 1 and getting DJ and his mom a house (which DJ's mom would have to pay Heather back for, but the terms were very generous)._

_Looking closely at Heather's actions, Leshawna had decided that maybe she had overreacted in Germany and that Heather wasn't completely evil._

"_I'm sorry about what in Germany, Heather," Leshawna said. "And I really mean it this time."_

(End flashback)

…

Later, Leshawna found out about Duncan cheating on Gwen and their subsequent breakup. She had tried to convince the goth girl that she should give Cody a shot but Gwen was uninterested. Leshawna then decided to enlist Heather's help due to her expertise in scheme hatchery.

"Are you sure you want to keep your involvement a secret?" Heather asked.

"I'm sure," Leshawna answered. "What I'm not sure of is how cool Gwen will be if she finds out I went this far to force the issue."

"But it's cool for me to do that," Heather said, "since I was just trying to give Cody a pleasant surprise."

"Yeah," Leshawna said. She knew she was putting herself in a vulnerable position by giving Heather the option of exposing her involvement to Gwen, but she wasn't worried. She had confidence in her ability to handle Gwen and deal payback on Heather if it came to that. More importantly, she had decided to bury the hatchet with Heather and their scheme served as a trust building exercise of sorts.

…..

Once her meetings with Gwen, Cody and Leshawna were done, Heather rejoined the party. She surveyed the room and saw someone she hadn't talked to yet.

"E," Heather said as walked up to Eva, using her nickname for the muscle girl. Heather got up to Eva and hugged her. "It's great to see you. I'm sorry I didn't greet you when you got here, but I was busy recently."

"Relax," Eva said as she returned the hug. "I only got here ten minutes ago. I'd have gotten here sooner, but my plane didn't get off the runway for two hours."

"I hate it when that happens," Heather said and they broke their hug.

"To make things worse," Eve continued with a frustrated grimace, "When my plane finally did land, it took me a half hour to get a cab. Now as much as I'd love to catch up with you, where is the alcohol here? I've never wanted to get drunk more than I do right now."

"Follow me," Heather said as she led Eva to a cooler. Eva grabbed a beer and Heather decided to have another wine cooler. Eva drank half her beer in one go while Heather just sipped wine cooler. "Feeling better now?"

"Oh yeah," Eva said jubilantly. She finished that beer and grabbed another one. "So how did things go down with Operation: Can't Possibly Fail?"

"Without a hitch," Heather said and began explaining how she got Cody and Gwen together. They had exchanged e-mails and video chatted over the internet since they began their unlikely friendship. Heather had shared the details of her plan to aid Cody and f#*k with Duncan to Eva as soon as she'd thought of them.

Heather had finished the part about Cody and Gwen. She then told Eva about how she could tell Noah liked Katie from talking to him and how they both came to her and Katie admitted to liking Noah. "So I placed my hands behind their heads and gently pushed them towards each other and boom: they start making out."

"Nice," Eva said in support of Heather's use of the direct approach.

"But enough about me, let's talk about you. What have you been up to?"

"Well, the biggest thing to happen to me lately is that I have a boyfriend now."

"That's great. What's he like?"

"His name's Bryan. You wouldn't like him: he's a real nerd."

"If you like him, then he's cool to me. How do you two get together?"

"He had a bit of a bully problem and I solved it for him. I didn't immediately ask him out then: that was just my way of saying we should hang out. After we spent more time with each other and got closer, then we started going out. And it's all thank to your advice."

"What?" Heather asked in shock. "I don't remember telling you to endear yourself to a guy by keeping him from getting beat up."

"Sure you did," Eva said. "You gave me some dating advice about a month ago. One of the things you said was to be proactive.

"No, I told you to _buy _Proactive," Heather clarified. "Guys don't like zits."

"Oh," Eva said as she considered this and started laughing. "Well it worked anyway."

The two of them laughed for a while over the misunderstanding and it's results. They made small talk for a while before Heather brought up another topic.

"There's one little thing I'd like you to do soon, E," Heather said.

"What's that?" Eva asked.

"Duncan's tied up to a tree outside," Heather began. "Courtney, Harold and Justin had a little fun with him after I nudged Cody into tasing him. Anyway, I want you to let him down and in the most intimidating way possible, tell him not to do anything in terms of looking for retribution. Oh, and feel free to smack him around a bit if you have to: or even if you just want to."

"Can do," Eva replied.

Heather was ecstatic to see Eva in person again. Eva's return flight wasn't for two days and Heather was planning to spend tomorrow with her friend.

…

A few hours later, the party had ended. Those within driving distance took off while those who had to fly in were staying in motel rooms Heather was paying for. She and DJ were by themselves in her room and were about to have the awkward conversation Heather knew she had to deal with.

"I just want to say," Heather began, "that I am sorry about upstaging you at your own birthday party."

"That's not what I want to talk about," DJ said with a serious expression.

"It's about tasing Duncan, isn't it?" Heather asked and DJ nodded yes. "I didn't tell you about it before because you'd try to talk me out of it and warn Duncan when that didn't work. I know this goes against what you've taught me about morality but I felt like I had to do that and I didn't want you to interfere. I'm sorry."

"I've been thinking about this a lot and I'm not mad or disappointed with you. I understand why you were so upset about Duncan getting away with as much stuff as he has. I've thought about talking to him about how he's such a jerk but I didn't have the nerve."

"Like that would have even done anything. Does Duncan really strike as the kind of guy who likes being told what to do?"

"Which brings me to my next point. You did what you did to prove that he wasn't untouchable. You only did it to prove it to yourself, but you also proved it to him. Maybe he will think about this the next time he decides to treat someone like crap."

"Doubt it. If Duncan was the kind of guy who occasionally thought about the consequences of his actions, then he never would have gone to juvie."

"Oh yeah," DJ said and an awkward silence fell over the two. "The point is, I'm going to let this one slide for several reasons."

"I am so glad to hear that," Heather said then walked away and picked up a gift-wrapped box. "I have a present for you."

"You didn't have to get me anything," DJ said as he took the box. "You got my mom and I a house."

"Which is still legally mine until she pays me back for it," Heather countered.

"It was still a very big thing," DJ said. He took the wrapping off and saw that it was a box of condoms. "Does this mean what I think it means?" DJ asked with eyes widened in shock.

"Yes it does," Heather said in a sultry tone as she leaned towards DJ and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'm ready to take our relationship to the next level."

Heather put her arms around DJ and started making out with him. DJ was not participating. Heather stopped and separated from him.

"Need a minute to take this all in?" Heather asked and DJ nodded yes. "Would you like to wait a night or two?"

"Yes please," DJ said.

"Fine," Heather said. She was actually a little happy to see DJ hesitate: it meant he didn't want her just for her body. It also meant he was worried about how this might change things between them. DJ walked towards the door but was stopped by Heather grabbing his hand.

"If you're worried about how this will change things," she began, "don't be. Things will be different between us, but it will be in a good way." Heather let go of his hands. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," DJ said, then leaned towards her and gave her a good night kiss before heading for his own home.


End file.
